Park ; 10 acres of this will be developed, to be known as Golden 

 Hill Playground. A field house already has been erected with an 

 assembly room accomodating about 300. This building is open 

 for evening work and is used by organizations of adults as well 

 as children, for dancing and club meetings. About two acres of 

 land have already been graded for the University Heights Play- 

 ground, apparatus has been provided, and the playground is 

 ready for occupancy. 



School house grounds are used to some extent by school chil- 

 dren as play spaces. These are equipped with a limited amount 

 of apparatus as baskets for basket ball courts, swings and see- 

 saws. They are used at recess time and during noon hours, gen- 

 erally under supervision of teachers. A fine opportunity is of- 

 fered especially at the newer schools where there is considerable 

 play space, to make more extended use of the grounds outside of 

 school hours, under regular supervision, possibly under direction 

 of the Board of Playground Commissioners. No general attempt 

 is made at present to use the school buildings as evening recrea- 

 tional centers for the organizations of boys' or girls' clubs. Nor 

 has provision been made for evening entertainment as dancing 

 under proper supervision, for the young people of a particular 

 neighborhood. There is a single exception to this. At one pub- 

 lic school a regular Fridaj^ night dance for students and friends 

 is now held. Such use of the schools as recreational centers and 

 social centers as well, that is, for the use of such organizations 

 as the various neighborhood Improvement Clubs, might well be 

 placed in charge of a special director of school centers. This is 

 done at present in other cities. The duties of the director would 

 be not only to supply the demand for, but create interest in, 

 healthful and wholesome forms of amusement, which would cater 

 to the needs of each locality. In this way, the less wholesome in- 

 fluence of down-town commercialized amusement places would 

 be successfully counteracted. 



Public Baths 



The city has no free baths or bath houses excepting the ex- 

 tremely limited accomodations at the field houses at Rose Park 

 and Golden Hill Playgrounds. This, in spite of the fact that there 

 is a splendid stretch of bay front along the city tide-lands, with 

 special natural facilities for safe, all-the-year bathing. Already 

 application has been made to the City Council by the Board of 

 Playground Commissioners for two blocks of city tide-lands to 

 be used for bathing purposes. A single important drawback, to 

 this use of the water front for public bathing facilities, is the 

 fact that at present the waters of the bay are polluted by the 

 city's sewage. The "harbor is nothing but a cesspool" was the 

 statement of a person in autliority. It is evident that a proper 

 disposal of the city's sewage should be made immediately. The 

 popularity of the San Diego Rowing Club, the admission fee for 

 which is prohibitive to the ordinary wage earner, indicates a 

 possible future undertaking for the city in renting row boats at 

 a small fee. It is unfortunate that the main amusement resort, 



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